All change for children's services law in England
It was all change for the provision of children's services in England on 1 April 2011. That date marked the implementation of most of the Children & Young Persons Act 2008. The Inform legislation guides have now been fully revised to take account of those wide-ranging changes to the legislation about local authority duties towards looked after children, other vulnerable children and care leavers, which came into force in April 2011. The key points to note are as follows:
 
(i) cash assistance for families - section 17 of the Children Act 1989 has been amended to reflect the removal of the restrictions on providing a children's service in the form of cash,
 
(ii) new placement obligations - three new sections of the Children Act 1989, sections 22A to 22C, now provide for local authority placement responsibilites towards looked after children. The most important section is section 22C which requires a different placement choice process than previously, placing greater emphasis on parental placements. Section 22C is supplemented by the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010. These replace a range of old regulations dating back to 1991 so that a single set of regulations now deals with care plans for looked after children, placement plans, special placement rules for different types of placement such as emergency placements with unapproved foster carers, reviews, visits by social workers to looked after children, the meaning of independent visitors, and pathway plans and personal advisers for eligible children,
 
(iii) use of unregulated accommodation - a new section 22D of the Children Act 1989 places new restrictions on placing looked after children in unregulated accommodation, such as supported lodgings,
 
(iv) managing placement availability - a new section 22G of the Children Act 1989 imposes new duties on local authorities to ensure they have access to a sufficient range of local placements,
 
(v) visits to looked after children - a new section 22ZA of the Children Act 1989 imposes new duties on local authorities/their social workers to visit looked after children. The duty is supplemented by regulations, which set out matters such as frequency of visits (the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010). Also, the duty has been extended by regulations so that it also applies to certain children who ceased to be looked after upon being detained (the Visits to Former Looked After Children in Detention (England) Regulations 2010),
 
(vi) independent visitors - a new section 22ZB reforms the law on the appointment of independent visitors for looked after children and is likely to lead to more independent visitors having to be appointed,
 
(vii) leaving care regulations - the leaving care regulations have been reformed. Regulations about leaving care services for eligible children (briefly, these are older looked after children who have not yet left care) are found in the general Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010. But relevant children (briefly, early care leavers), former care leavers (young adults who have left care) and the new category of care leaver (see below) are provided for in the Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010,
 
(viii) extension of leaving care duties - an entirely new category of person entitled to leaving care services has been created. This is provided for in new section 23CA of the Children Act 1989. Briefly, it is for the benefit of care leavers who return to education or training between the ages of 21 and 25,
 
(ix) independent reviewing officers - the core functions of independent reviewing officers are now enshrined on the face of the Children Act 1989, in new sections 25A and 25B. The functions of IROs are also extended so that they have a wider role than simply being involved in looked after children's reviews,
 
(x) voluntary organisations - a new set of regulations deal with the placement of childen by voluntary organisations. These are available from section 59 of the Children Act 1989,
 
(xi) children in alternatve forms of long-term care - local authorities' duties in relation to children in alternative forms of long-term residential care, such as in hospital, have been extended. These are explained in the revised guides to sections 85 to 86A of the Children Act 1989. They are supplemented by regulations, the Visits to Children in Long-Term Residential Care Regulations 2011. Unusually in this era of devolution, these Regulations apply to both England and Wales. The new visiting duties should be read in conjunction with new paragraph 8A of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989 which contains new duties on local authorities to promote contact between children in long-term residential care and their families,
 
(xii) respite care for disabled children - local authorities have new duties to provide respite breaks for the carers of disabled children. These are explained in the note to paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989. The new duties are supplemented by regulations, the Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations 2011,
 
(xiii) Care Planning Regulations - the CC Inform version of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010 has been updated. Despite only being in force since 1 April 2011, those regulations have already been amended (to reflect the new Fostering Services Regulations). The CC Inform version of the Care Planning etc Regulations incorporates those amendments,
 
(xiv) Adoption Agencies Regulations - the CC Inform version of the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 has been updated to reflect recent amendments. The amendments principally concern the establishment of adoption panels,
 
(xv) Children's Homes - the CC Inform version of the Children's Homes Regulations 2001 has been updated. This is to reflect a raft of amendments made to the Regulations, covering a diverse range of matters including, to name but a few, care planning through to restraint and keeping of records of menus. Further analysis of the changes to the Regulations are contained in a specially commissioned CC Inform guide [pls link to the Children's Homes guide that I sent in recently]
 
What about Wales?
Currently, it is particularly difficult to work out the law about the provision of children's services in Wales. This is because most of the April 2011 changes to the Children Act 1989 described above have not been brought into force in Wales although they are expressed as applying to Wales. Accordingly, we currently have 'new law' applying in England but 'old law' in Wales. The Inform guides have been amended to guide Welsh subscribers through the labyrinthe. Key points are:
 
(i) placement choice - section 23 of the Children Act 1989, which contains the placement choice obligations that were contained in the original version of the Children Act 1989, now only applies in Wales. The CC Inform guide to the Children Act 1989 has been amended to reflect that,
 
(ii) visits to looked after children - the new visiting duties in section 22ZA of the Children Act 1989 are already operational in Wales. That section is one of the few changes to the Children Act 1989 that came into force in Wales at the same time as in England. Also. like in England, the duty has been extended by regulations to include visits to some looked after children who ceased to be looked after upon being detained (the Visits to Former Looked After Children in Detention (Wales) Regulations 2011),
 
(iii) children in alternative long-term care - the extended duties to visit children in alternative forms of long-term residential care are already operation in Wales. These are explained in the revised guides to sections 85 to 86A of the Children Act 1989. They are supplemented by regulations, the Visits to Children in Long-Term Residential Care Regulations 2011. Unusually in this era of devolution, these Regulations apply to both England and Wales. The new visiting duties should be read in conjunction with new paragraph 8A of Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989 which contains new duties on local authorities to promote contact between children in long-term residential care and their families."
 

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has updated the legislation on the site. Please see below for a guide to what has changed with links straight through to the relevant part of the statute.

Our legislative digests are now fully integrated with the new Family Procedure Rules 2010, which came into force in April 2011, as well as associated Practice Directions and official Court forms. This allows practitioners to understand the full legal context to their work, both matters of substance and matters of court process. For example:
 
(i) section14A of the guide to the Children Act 1989 is about Special Guardianship Orders.  That section already described the role of a local authority in producing court reports about an applicant for a special guardianship order. Now, the section also includes links to those Family Procedure Rules which deal specifically with filing and disclosure of local authority reports. Further, the section provides access to the official form for making an application for a Special Guardianship Order.
 
(ii) A person's consent is required before s/he is named in a Family Assessment Order under section 16 of the Children Act 1989. The CC Inform guide to section 16 now takes readers to the Family Procedure Rule which sets out how consent is to be obtained.
 
(iii) Section 38 of the Children Act 1989 provides for interim care orders to be made. The CC Inform guide to section 38 now contains links to the special Rule about the giving of evidence in interim care proceedings.
 
(iv) Section 52 of the Adoption & Children Act 2002 contains the law about the giving of, and dispensing with, parental consent in adoption proceedings. The CC Inform guide to section 52 now includes the consent-related provisions of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 as well as: (a) the 2 Practice Directions about recording consent, and (b) the 8 different official forms for recording parental consent in particular types of adoption proceedings.

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has updated the legislation on the site. Please see below for a guide to what has changed with links straight through to the relevant part of the statute.

Children & Young Persons Act 2008: reform of the Children Act 1989
The most significant reforms to the law about looked-after children since the Children Act 1989 was first enacted, and other major leaving care reforms, are fast approaching their implementation date in England of 1 April 2011. Inform's legislation guides have been amended to reflect the changes.
 
The changes are contained in provisions of the Children & Young Persons Act 2008 (which are coming into force in England on 1 April 2011). As the 2008 Act operates by amending the Children Act 1989, we have altered the Inform guide to the Children Act 1989 to show the changes in-situ. The highlights are as follows:
 
- section 17 of the Children Act guide is amended to reflect the impending removal of the restriction on making c+ash payments as a form of service for children in need or their families,
 
- section 23 of the Children Act guide is amended as a result of new rules about choosing placements for looked-after children. That section also includes a link to the new Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 (which come into force on 1 April 2011),
 
- a new section 23ZA is added to the Children Act guide. This new section obliges councils to undertake a programme of visits to looked after children. The guide also includes a link to regulations which extend the duty so that it also applies to certain children who ceased to be looked after when they were detained,
 
- a new section 23ZB is added to the Children Act guide. This is a new section which imposes extensive new obligations on councils to appoint independent visitors for looked after children,
 
- section 23A of the Children Act is amended so that it contains a link to the new Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010 (which come into force on 1 April 2011),
 
- a new section 23CA is added to the Children Act guide. This new section creates a new category of care leaver eligible for leaving care services. It is designed to benefit care leavers who return to education or training after attaining the age of 21,
 
- new sections 25A and 25B  are added to the Children Act guide. These new sections enhance the role of Independent Reviewing Officers so that they will monitor a council's overall performance in relation to a looked after child, rather than just focus on statutory reviews,
 
- sections 85 and 86 of the Children Act 1989 are amended to alter the notification requirements for children in alternative forms of long-term care such as hospitals. Also a new section 86A imposes new visiting obligations on local authorities in relation to such children. These changes are due to occur in Wales as well as England,
 
- a new duty to arrange respite care for disabled children is created. It is contained in amendments made to paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 to the Children Act.
 

Children & Young Persons Act 2008: Independent social work practices
 An order has been made permitting a further 10 English local authorities to establish independent social work practices under Part 1 of the 2008 Act. For further details, including about the legal status of such practices, see section 1 of the Inform guide to the 2008 Act.
 

Care Standards
A new section 30A is added to the Inform guide to the Care Standards Act 2000. This new section, which comes into force on 1 April 2011 in England, requires councils to be notified if OFSTED takes enforcement action in relation to children's social care, such as children's homes, registered under the 2000 Act.
 

Wales: Children & Young Persons Act 2008
The reforms to looked-after children and leaving care services referred to above are contained in legislation which extends across England and Wales. At the date of this update, however, the Welsh Ministers had not made any order bringing the legislation into force in Wales. But there are plenty of other legislative developments happening in Wales at the moment, as explained below.
 

Wales: Child-minding and day care
Part 2 of the Children & Families (Wales) Measure 2010 is to come into force on 1 April 2011. This establishes a new regime for the registration of child-minding and children's day care in Wales. The CC Inform guide to the 2010 Measure has been amended accordingly and links added to the range of newly-made regulations which supplement the registration scheme. For further details, see section 19 of the CC Inform guide to the 2010 Measure.
 
At the same time, the existing legislation contained in Part XA of the Children Act 1989 will be repealed. This is explained at section 79A of the CC Inform guide to the Children Act 1989 [link please], which also contains links to the transitional legislation which transfers currently registered providers from the old to the new registration system.
 

Wales: child poverty
Local authorities, and others such as NHS bodies, in Wales are now required to have produced their child poverty strategies. This is as a result of provisions of the Children & Families (Wales) Measure 2010 coming into force in January 2011. For further details, see section 2 of the guide to the 2010 Measure and section 26 of the guide to the Children Act 2004 (this describes different ways in which the duty to produce a child poverty strategy may be discharged).

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has updated the legislation on the site. Please see below for a guide to what has changed with links straight through to the relevant part of the statute.

Safeguarding                  
Children's Trusts in England now have express statutory underpinning. Amendments made to the Children Act 2004 by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 provide the new legal foundations for Children's Trust arrangements. The Inform guide to the Children Act 2004 has been updated with an explanation of the effect of the new provisions and links to the new regulations which fine-tune their operation.

Children's Trust Boards, rather than Local Safeguarding Children Boards, are now responsible for producing Children and Young People's Plans for their areas. For further details, including the regulations which set out the required content for plans, see section 17 of the Inform guide to the Children Act 2004. Also, members of the Children's Trust Board are now statutorily required to have regards to the plans (see section 17A of the Inform guide to the Children Act 2004).

The membership of Local Safeguarding Children Boards in England has been expanded. As a result of amendments made to the Children Act 2004 by the Apprenticeships etc Act 2009, LSCBs should now include amongst their membership two representatives of the local community. Also, the LSCB regulations have been amended so that boards should now also include representatives of education providers, such as maintained schools, in the board's area. For further details, see section 13 of the guide to the Children Act 2004.

LSCBs in England also now have to produce annual reports. Amendments to the Children Act 2004, made by the Apprenticeships etc. Act 2009, mean that LSCBs must now publish an annual report about their activities. For further details, see section 14A of the Inform guide to the Children Act 2004.

Fostering and Adoption
Adoptions from Nepal are suspended as a result of a statutory Order made under the Children & Adoption Act 2006. To access the order, see section 9 of the Inform guide to the Children & Adoption Act 2006.

Care Standards       
"Stop notices" can now served on providers of children's homes, and residential family centres, in England and Wales. The effect of the notice is to prohibit the home or centre from admitting any new children. The power to issue such notices is contained in section 22B of the Care Standards Act 2000 (inserted in that Act by the Children and Young Persons Act 2008) which came into force in April 2010. In England, notices are issued by OFSTED and, in Wales, by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales.

Childcare

Local authorities in England are now obliged to have Children's (or Sure Start) centres. There must also be an advisory board for each centre. These obligations are contained in a number of sections inserted in the Childcare Act 2006 by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. 

A new category of exempt child-minding has been created (ie child-minding which does not require registration with Ofsted). It is comprised of childminding for the children of friends where this is not provided in return for a payment of money or money's worth. The exemption is contained in amendments made to the Childcare (Exemptions from Registration) Order 2008. The Order, as amended, is available at section 33 of the Inform guide to the Childcare Act 2006.

Wales
Welsh foster carers (actual and prospective) have new rights to challenge decisions made about them, for example a decision that a carer is not suitable to foster a particular child. The process is set out in the Independent Review of Determinations (Adoption & Fostering) (Wales) Regulations 2010 which are available here.

The regulations setting out the required contents of Single Education Plans and Children and Young People's Plans in Wales have been amended. The regulations, as amended, are available at section 26 of the Inform guide to the Children Act 2004.

Isles of Scilly
And finally, statutory Orders have been made so that functions of local authorities under the Adoption & Children Act 2002 and Children Act 1989 are also functions of the Council of the Isles of Scilly. To access the Orders, go to section 141 of the Inform guide to the Adoption & Children Act 2002 and section 108 of the Inform guide to the Children Act 1989.

 

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has provided the latest legislation update for your attention. Please find the details below.

Community Care Inform now contains a guide to the Children & Families (Wales) Measure 2010. This is the first significant Measure of the National Assembly for Wales (which in terms of legal effect has the same status as an Act of Parliament) dealing solely with children. It is likely to mark the start of a process of increasing divergence in the law relating to children as between England and Wales. A wide-ranging piece of legislation, the Measure (most of which is not yet in force) does the following things:

(i) establishes Welsh arrangements for tackling child poverty, which are in addition to the provision made by the UK Child Poverty Act 2010;

(ii) creates a duty on Welsh local authorities to secure sufficient play opportunities in their areas;

(iii) contains a new regulatory system for child minding and day care in Wales (with the old system contained in Part 10A of the Children Act 1989 being repealed);

(iv) creates integrated family support teams, with social work and health representation, as a new model of social work provision for especially vulnerable families;

(v) requires each local authority in Wales to appoint a family social work standards officer, to champion evidence-based social work practice.

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has provided the latest legislation update for your attention. Please find the details below.

CC Inform has a new guide to the recently enacted Child Poverty Act 2010.

The Act received Royal Assent on 25 March 2010 and already imposes a requirement on the Secretary of State to ensure that a number of UK child poverty targets are met by March 2021.

Of most interest to local authorities, however, is Part 2 of the Act. Coming into force on 25 May 2010, this Part requires English local authorities and a range of partner bodies to make arrangements for the purpose of reducing, and mitigating the effect, of local child poverty. In addition, the Act requires local child poverty strategies to be prepared and local authorities will be required to have regard to these strategies when exercising their functions. Overall, Part 2 of the Act will ensure that child poverty reduction is built into the long-term aims of Children's Services Departments.

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has provided the latest legislation update for your attention. Please find the details below.

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009

We have added a guide to this Act, to the extent that it is of particular interest to persons working in child social care. The guide explains these aspects of the 2009 Act:

- the new statutory scheme about the education of detained children and young people, including children with statements of SEN;

- extended membership of, and new duties for, English Local Safeguarding Children Boards;

- the creation of Children's Trust Boards in England to oversee partnership working in each local authority area;

- the Secretary of State's new statutory power to set safeguarding targets for English local authorities;

- local authorities' new obligations to have 'Sure Start Children's Centres'.

Community Care Inform's legal expert, Ed Mitchell, has provided the latest legislation update for your attention. Please find the details below.

Leaving Care
Local authorities in England have new obligations to pay higher education bursaries to care leavers. As a result of amendments made by s.21 of the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 (which have recently come into force), s.23C of the Children Act 1989 now requires local authorities to pay higher education bursaries to certain care leavers. For further details and links to the regulations which specify the amount of the bursary, see s.23C of the Community Care Inform guide to the Children Act 1989. 

 

Children's Services
On 12 January 2010, the Secretary of State gained the power to make regulations which set safeguarding targets for children's services authorities in England. On this date, s.195 of the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 came into force and inserted a new section 9A into the Children Act 2004, which contains the Secretary of State's new powers to set statutory safeguarding targets. 

Also on 12 January 2010, schools became tied into Children's Trust arrangements in England. On that date, the list of bodies subject to the duty to co-operate to improve children's well-being under section 10 of the Children Act 2004 was extended to include governing bodies of maintained schools and Further Education Institutions, as well as proprietors of Academies. This extension occurred upon the commencement of s.195 of the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, which amends section 10 of the Children Act 2004. For further details, see section 10 of the Community Care Inform guide to the Children Act 2004.

Private Family Law Orders
There is now a general rule that residence orders last until a child is 18 (rather than 16 as previously). But the general rule does not apply if a court directs that the order should end earlier or another order is made discharging the residence order. This extension of the usual duration of residence orders is a result of amendments made to the Children Act 1989 by s.37 of the Children & Young Persons Act 2008 and which recently came into force. Section 9 of the Community Care Inform guide to the Children Act 1989 has been amended to take account of this change.

The rules on applications for residence orders by a child's relative have been relaxed. As a result of amendments made to the Children Act 1989 by the Children & Young Persons Act 2008, which recently came into force, a child's relative, such as a grandparent, is entitled to apply for a residence order (without obtaining leave of the court) if the child has been living with him/her for a period of at least one year preceding the application. This places relatives in the same position as local authority foster parents. Section 10 of the guide to the Children Act 1989 has been amended to take account of this change. The rules on relatives applying for special guardianship orders have also been changed to the same effect: see section 14A of the guide to the Children Act 1989.